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THOUSANDS OF WHITE SLAVES SOUGHT FOR
TRAFFIC IN 1917, VICE PROBE SHOWS
New York, Aug. 24. New York
will require 1,200 white slaves for the
year 1917 and thousands more will
be wanted for other cities of the
country, according to estimates made
by officials conducting a white slave
investigation here!
Yushe Botwln, called the "King of
the White Slavers," has confessed,
the officials say, that he has been a
procurer of girls for 27 years and
that 1,000 girte are sold each year In
New Yqrk alone. He did not esti
mate how many thousand are sold in
other cities.
How these thousands of slaves are
procured and who procures them has
"been brought out in the investiga
tion. The same methods will be used
to secure the thousands wanted for
1917 if the agents are able to oper
ate as they have in the past
They will be procured by men who
make the procuring of girls their
business. They will come from the
small cities, country districts, re
spectable families and from among
the girls coming into the United
States from other countries.
Traffic in white slaves has been
found to extend throughout the
United States from New York to San
Francisco, by devious routes through
Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicagd, New
Orleans and Denver.
Agents engaged in the traffic lay in
wait for foreign girls who arrive in
New York, friendless and alone.
Many are procured.
Other agents, according to revela.
tions made in the investigation, op
erate in small cities and country dis
tricts where girls are induced to
leave homes, schools and factories
on promise of easy life in big cities,
then turned over to resort keepers.
Esther Andrews has secured for
The Day Book the "behind the
scenes" story of the white slave
traffic
Posing as the keeper of a house,
she got, into the criminal courts
building where the authorities had
Botwin confined, talked with him and
secured an insight of the character
of this man who for 27 years has
made a business of turning girls into
lives of shame.
Miss Andrews also secured the
other side of the story the side of
the white slave. She interviewed
Rose Scherer, who fell into the
clutches of an agent when she was
on hr way to this country from Rus
sia and through his operations was
on the way to a life of shame before
her ship landed at Ellis Island. The
two sides of the story are herewith
presented:
WHITE SLAVER SEEN BY WOMAN
WRITER AS "HUMAN BUZZARD"
By Esther Andrews
A rough hand pushed me into a
small room in the criminal courts
building.
Ab I turned I met the quiet watch
ful eyes of a little gray man, huddled
in an arm chair in one corner
Yushe Botwin, white slaver!
He did not move, but as I walked
to a chair beside him, his eyes, alert
and watching, followed me slowly.
He was like many another east side
type, smalt, heavy-shouldered, wih
long ape-like arms and gnarled
hands.
He had the flat, low-browed head
of the ape, short gray hair, shaggy
gray eyebrows and a closely trimmed,
tobacco-stained grey moustache.
His under lip protruded slightly.
With a quick movement, he drew
his- chair close to mine, thrust his
face forward and peered into my
face. No shifting guilty glance was
this.
Guilt?
Yushe Botwin has no idea of guilt
because he has no conception of
crime. Without soul, he is without
shame. '